The SDMX Technical Working Group (SDMX-TWG) has produced a new specification for the SDMX-JSON Data Message and submits it for public review.

JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a widely used standardised lightweight data-interchange format. The SDMX-JSON Data Message works together with the SDMX RESTful Web Services API. It will assist developers to write software that requests data responses in JSON from SDMX RESTful API and processes data and metadata in the JSON response. The current version of SDMX-JSON Data Message focuses on data visualisation and it supports all features of the SDMX RESTful API for data queries. SDMX RESTful API also supports reference metadata queries and structural metadata queries. These are not yet supported by the SDMX-JSON format.

The proposed format conforms to the JSON standard specification, and it supports the SDMX 2.1 Information Model. SDMX-JSON is streamable from a supporting web service in order to limit the amount of server resources. It should provide fast responses from a web service: few roundtrips, small message sizes and fast parsing. In addition, the format aims to ease the development of client applications with a simple but generic message structure that supports different types of data structures. The SDMX-JSON format may be used in a wide variety of programming languages and application programs. Testing and development of the format has focused on JavaScript applications running in web browsers.

Specification (authoritative): sdmx-json-data-message.pdf

HTML version of the specification, sample messages and informative JSON Schema: samples-tools.zip

The public review period for this specification extends until 31st October 2014 in order to allow time for implementation. Please send your comments to the SDMX Technical Working Group (SDMX-TWG) twg@sdmx.org. Each email message should contain only one comment. Feedback is welcome.